Kudankulam: Anti-nuke protests shift to graveyards

Kundankulam: After their jal satyagraha, anti-nuclear agitators undertook a 'graveyard protest' today to seek their forefathers' blessings for success of their stir against filling of uranium fuel in Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant.

Members of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) staged the protest at Idinthakarai, the epicentre of the stir, and eight coastal villages nearby.

"People sat besides the graves of their forefathers and cried out aloud, decrying the inaction against preventing loading of fuel and sought their blessings for the success of their stir against the plant," PMANE convenor Pushparayan said.

Representational image.

He said that besides the eight coastal villages, the protest was also observed in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts along the South coast. Police said PMANE leader S P Udhayakumar's call to picket Central government offices today did not evoke any response.

Udayakumar, who is evading arrest in a case relating to the anti-nuclear stir, had given a call to picket Central government offices in the state today. The stir took a violent turn on September 10, leading to the death of a fishermen in police firing in this district.

On September 13, PMANE activists stepped up their protest against KNPP by standing in sea waters forming a human chain off nearby Idinthakarai coast, taking a leaf from jal satyagraha activists in Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh, whose demands for land and reduction in height of Omkareshwar dam were agreed to by the Madhya Pradesh government.

The first unit of KNPP was scheduled to be commissioned last December but had been delayed by the protests by locals on safety concerns.